USPS refuses mail delivery for 'safety reasons'

FORT MYERS: Half of the units inside the Village Creek Condos have already been foreclosed upon. For the residents in the other half, there is a new problem. The 240 mailboxes there are so dilapidated; the U.S. Postal Service refuses to deliver mail to them.

The final straw came last month when the post office decided the boxes inside the Fort Myers apartments turned condos were no longer safe.

"It's now reached a point where the lock is falling out of the box we're not able to secure the mail and the actual mail receptacles will allow for somebody to actually pry them open and take the mail out," said Debbie Mitchell, USPS Customer Relations Coordinator.

Officials with the Postal Service agreed to reactivate service as soon as the old boxes are replaced. But it's not that simple.

The management company for the condo association, Realty Services, explained it'll cost $9,000 to install new boxes. That kind of money isn't just sitting around and people living there are starting to get antsy.

"We should be able to get our mail right here - you know what I'm saying? Our complex, our mail should be delivered," said Village Creek resident Victor Rivera.

So now instead of going to their mailbox to get their mail, residents have to drive to a nearby go down Winkler Avenue to a nearby post office. And for neighbors who are disabled or elderly, that's not always so easy.

People living in the complex are left wondering when this hassle will end.

They say the signs on the boxes don't help. The Postal Service posted one stating the mail delivery service "has been suspended for safety and security reasons."

But the Village Creek note, posted right next to the letter from the Postal Service, reads much differently.

The association wrote, "Thanks to our local mail carrier, your service has been disrupted."

Tenants we spoke with are renting their units and hope the replacement cost won't affect their wallets.

"They're going to charge all the landlords a pretty penny, so that might lead into raising rent," said Rivera.

Despite what the sign says, officials with Reality Services said it could take up to two months to get the boxes installed.

It's a financial blow at a time when managers there say the complex was just starting to turn itself around from the foreclosure nightmare.

2018-03-17T20:57:05Z2018-03-17T20:57:04ZJailhouse video reveals California sheriff’s deputies watching and sometimes laughing as a schizophrenic man who had been strapped naked to a chair for 46 hours writhes on the floor of his cell, loses consciousness and eventually dies.